Posts Tagged ‘TJ Brennan’

The longest rivalry in the AHL continues as the Bears open up their 75th season at home. The Amerks fell behind by 3 in the second period but made a huge comeback fueled by a 4 for 6 performance on the power play and some awful goaltending by Dany Sabourin (4 goals against, 3 saves in second period). Marcus Foligno had his best night so far as a professional with 2 goals and 2 assists. Cody Hodgson added 3 assists and T.J. Brennan had 2 goals and 1 assist. On the Hershey side, Garrett Stafford had 4 assists and Jeff Taffe had a goal and 3 assists.

The Grand Rapids Griffins make their only trip to Rochester in search of their first win of the season. The Griffins took a 2 goal lead in the second period but 3 power play goals by the Amerks sealed the victory for Rochester with the final score ending 4-3.

It’s time to finally post our grades for the 2011-2012 Amerks roster and no, it’s not a mistake that it’s the end of June. Once the season is over interest pretty much fades and so does traffic, even when new content is posted. This is the time of year that there’s also renewed interest in talking about hockey again with the start of free agency and hockey fans from around the world trying to find information on players as they move around.

The grades are primarily put together by Eric Bourgeois and Peter Borrelli, two die hards who watch the game closely. The first grade is from Eric, second is Pete. Comments have names added after as well.

Joe Finley (A / B+)

That big physical D we’re needed for years. Consistent. Great team guy. Willing to protect teammates. (Eric)

It was physically painful to me to watch him try to hold back from killing anyone that touched our goalie. Current over-officiating kills a guy like him. (Pete)

Marcus Foligno (A / A+)

After a medicore start, he turned into an NHL’er overnight. One of the few who didn’t look overmatched against Marlies. Big and plays big! (Eric)

This is it. That’s been a common theme throughout the 2011/2012 season for the Rochester Americans in needing to find ways to turn the season around and stay alive. At times when they’ve seemed down and out they’ve found a way to rebound and win some games. Can they find a way to go on a three game winning streak? The odds are against them being down by two games in a best of five series but we should expect a decent hockey game Monday night at the War Memorial.

As of Monday morning it looks like there’ll probably be a crowd of over 5,000 which is pretty impressive for a first round playoff series, a round that typically has some low attendance all around the league. The crowds were small in the first round of the 2010 playoff series. They were small in 2007 as well. Even back in the lock out year the second home playoff game had 5,817 attend on a Friday. It helps to have cheaper tickets this season and also being owned by the Buffalo Sabres means a push by the Sabres to [...]Read More

There hasn’t been anything to say about the game two loss that hasn’t been said elsewhere. If you watched the game you saw the same thing as everyone else. The Marlies were the better team for most of the game. Rochester found a way to stay in the game like they have with just about all games all season but it wasn’t enough.

The first game of the Amerks vs Marlies playoff series was predictable. The Marlies were better but the Amerks found a way to battle back and make it a close game ending in a one goal loss. That’s the same way the ten regular season games went between these two teams. The first round of the playoffs is the best of five making game 2 on Saturday a must win for Rochester.

The Amerks are an average team facing a talented Toronto Marlies squad. David Leggio was at the top of his game making 34 saves while Ben Scrivens at the other end had 20 saves. It was only a one goal game but Rochester wasn’t able to generate a lot of offensive pressure and they were fortunate Leggio kept the score the way he did.

Down 3-1 in the third period Marcus Foligno scored a power play goal from the front of the net off a quick pass from Paul Szczechura down low. The Marlies were watching Foligno all game and didn’t give him very much room to work but the moment he was open he scored.

Evan Rankin made a back handed pass along the boards to TJ [...]Read More

This is it folks. There’s two regular season games left for the Rochester Americans and the race is close. The Amerks are not out of the playoff race just yet but if they want to make it they can’t afford to lose a game. It sure does sound familiar, the Sabres were in the same situation.

Doug Janik defeated the Amerks on Tuesday night with a penalty shot in overtime to give the Grand Rapids Griffins a 5-4 win. It was a league leading 24th game in overtime for Rochester. The call was easy for Jamie Koharski. Phil Varone broke his stick and instead of just dropping it to the ice he took the shaft part and tossed it at Janik who had the puck, automatic penalty shot. That was the game right there but it never should have come down to that.

Corey Tropp scored two great goals in less than four minutes in the first period to give the Amerks a 2-0 lead and what should have been the momentum to continue building on that. Unfortunately the opposite happened. The Griffins scored two goals in 59 seconds to tie the game [...]Read More

The Amerks are on the road tonight against the Hamilton Bulldogs, a team they have only beat twice out of nine games so far this season. If the Amerks are going to make the postseason they’ll need to win at least four out of their last five games. If there was a way to paint a bright picture I’d be trying my best but it’s easier to say that the season is on the line tonight.

The defense will be playing without Matt MacKenzie (upper body) and Dennis Persson (lower body) so they signed Ryan Grimshaw, from Greece, to an amateur tryout contract. Grimshaw just finished four years at Harvard and played three games with Trenton in the ECHL. After the Buffalo Sabres finish their season today in Boston they’ll send Brayden McNabb and TJ Brennan to join the Amerks in Glens Falls for the game on Sunday afternoon, hopefully it’s not too late.

Center Dan Catenacci has not played yet. He joined the Amerks after signing his contract with the Sabres but he isn’t healthy. He was struck in the ankle by a shot in his season finale with Owen Sound of the OHL.

The Buffalo Sabres were eliminated from any post season chances on Thursday night so they have sent Marcus Foligno and Corey Tropp back to the Amerks. The two players will join the Amerks in Hamilton for the game on Saturday night.

I think it’s safe to say these final five games for Rochester will be the last five regular season games that Foligno ever puts on an Amerks sweater. The season started with him getting into a fight in the first week, to questioning if he knew how to pass the puck to becoming a dominant player who earned a call up and has been an important part of the Buffalo Sabres roster. He’s proven he can be an NHL player every night. If he isn’t already penciled into the Sabres lineup for next season it’d be a big surprise.

Back in early February I wrote a short novel about Foligno developing into a dominant player, you can read that here (warning: it’s long).

Corey Tropp has also been sent back to the Amerks. He’s proven he has a future in the NHL as well, maybe not as quickly as Foligno but he can quickly get back there next [...]Read More

The Amerks failed to win the game but getting one out of two points against a team not in your conference is better than not getting anything at all. Rochester had a lot of chances to score goals throughout the second period but continued to hit the posts and give the Crunch too much room and they were able to succeed. The Amerks had a lead until halfway through the third period Peter Holland scored the tying goal and then Dan Sexton scored the eventual game winner in the shootout.

This game wasn’t lost because the Amerks were without Marcus Foligno, Corey Tropp and Travis Turnbull but because they were inconsistent the whole game. Those three players certainly would have helped but the game wasn’t lost due to their absence.

Igor Gongalsky and Kyle Kurtz had the only fight of the game at 5:06 of the first period. There weren’t many punches thrown but the two certainly gave it a shot against each other. You can see the video here:

Back to the game..

Shaone Morrisonn, Nick Crawford and Brayden McNabb scored the three goals for the Amerks in the 4-3 loss. Is that a good thing or bad [...]Read More

The Amerks had the chance to win on Friday night but a costly turnover, failed power play attempt and a foolish penalty cost them the game. The Crunch are in the hunt for the playoffs as much as the Amerks are and they took full advantage of every chance in the game. The game also had a couple of fights with Travis Turnbull vs Ryan O’Marra and TJ Brennan vs Josh Brittain with Joe Finley jumping into the mix as well and squaring off with Matt Smaby.

Paul Szczechura, Evan Rankin and Colin Stuart scored the three goals for the Amerks in the 4-3 loss. David Leggio finished the game with 31 saves.

The loss drops the Amerks back into 10th place in the current standings for their playoff push but still only three points away from fourth in the Western Conference.

The biggest news of the day is that Drew Schiestel has been assigned to the Texas Stars. He had been an odd man out defenseman for much of the season never fully recovered from a knee injury. He also made a few costly mistakes in games and was sat out after those were made. Based on the clear day roster released, Nick Crawford was put in his place. Schiestel was drafted in the 2nd round/59th overall in the 2007 draft and in the final year of his three year entry level contract. The Amerks do not appear to be getting anyone in return for Schiestel at this time otherwise they would’ve been on the clear day roster below.

A reassignment isn’t a trade, it’s just that, a reassignment. The Sabres will still retain his rights and before they assigned him they likely advised him or his agent that they plan to walk away from his contract at the end of the season or did this just so that he could play and not sit around.

The Texas Stars are currently in last place in the Western Conference so it could be a way to keep Drew Schiestel in action instead [...]Read More